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Almost 4 out of 10 US parents (39%) know of children who have been forced to self-quarantine because of COVID-19 since the start of this school year, according to a new Yahoo News / YouGov poll – and about a quarter (23%) say the virus has kicked their own children out of class.
The survey of 1,640 American adults, conducted October 1-4, highlights the vast impact that the latest wave of COVID in the United States has had even on Americans who have not themselves fallen ill – such as schoolchildren and working parents.
The poll also shows that despite all the noise and fury over masks and warrants, most Americans have come to accept both as valuable tools that can help the United States return to some semblance of normalcy.
Fueled by lagging vaccination rates and the hypercontagious Delta variant, the US summer wave has coincided with a nationwide return to full in-person schooling. By the end of August, school closures due to the virus had climbed to about 240 per week, according to Burbio, a company that has been monitoring the district’s responses to the pandemic.
Although falling infection rates have since slowed closures, the total number of schools forced to suspend classes this year is well over 2,200, meaning the number of individual children who have had to be put in quarantine – as part of a school closure or not – is much higher.
Yahoo News / YouGov poll results suggest that number could run into the millions – every child with parents or guardians who have suddenly had to scramble for babysitting and possibly be out of work because of it.
The good news is that the situation seems to be improving. Many districts are adopting more specific quarantine rules that allow children to stay in school as long as they are masked when exposed or continue to test negative for the virus. And as cases of COVID decline in surrounding communities – they’re down 35% nationwide since early September – it has become clear that school in person is not causing major epidemics.
As a result, a consensus is emerging on the best way to keep children in class while ensuring their safety. About 6 in 10 parents consistently told Yahoo News and YouGov that they feared their children could contract COVID (60%); that they will tell their child to wear a mask at school (63%); and that students and staff should be required to cover their faces (61 percent).
What has changed is that more and more neighborhoods are listening. As of mid-August, only 55% of parents reported that their local schools required masks; today that number is 64 percent.
Likewise, more and more school districts – and at least one state, California – are starting to require eligible students to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Most Americans (52%) support such measures; only 34 percent oppose it. Public schools already require vaccinations against measles and other infectious diseases.
On Thursday, Pfizer and BioNTech said they have asked federal regulators to allow emergency use of their coronavirus vaccine for the roughly 28 million American children aged 5 to 11 – the largest remaining block of unvaccinated Americans. According to the Yahoo News / YouGov poll, many of their parents (42%) plan to get them vaccinated as soon as possible; another 25 percent say they will wait and see.
Currently, around 42% of parents of children aged 12 to 15 – the most recent group to become eligible – say their children are already vaccinated, while 19% say they plan to get them vaccinated as soon as possible. . If vaccination rates among all miners reach this level – around 60 percent combined – it could further slow the US pandemic.
And school vaccination mandates could help even more: an additional 11% of parents who say they do not currently plan to vaccinate their unvaccinated children aged 5-18 also say they would change their mind if their child’s school required it.
This dynamic – how the personal impact of the pandemic can increase acceptance of safety measures – is also evident outside the classroom. 39% of U.S. adults now report that they or a friend or family member tested positive for COVID in the past month; 16% say that they or a friend or family member were hospitalized during the same period; and 10 percent say a friend or family member died during this time. These numbers decline slightly as Delta recedes, but they remain tragically high.
In light of this experience, there is broad agreement among Americans on what to do if Delta starts to rise again this fall and winter. Few people want to go back to lockdowns (28%) or shut down bars and indoor dining (29%) – severe restrictions that even the most cautious policymakers have widely dismissed now that vaccines are widely available.
But majorities support masking requirements in indoor public spaces (61%) and demanding that as many people as possible get vaccinated (55%). Even more popular? Cutting costs and increasing the availability of home testing kits (71%) – a policy with huge potential in which the Biden administration has just invested $ 1 billion. Meanwhile, about half of Americans (49%) support rules – like the one approved this week in Los Angeles – that would require proof of vaccination inside bars, restaurants, gyms and other crowded spaces. Some 39 percent oppose it.
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The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,640 American adults surveyed online from October 1-4, 2021. This sample was weighted by gender, age, race and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the United States Bureau of the Census, as well as the 2020 presidential vote (or not) and registration status voters. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all American adults. The margin of error is approximately 2.7%.
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